AYV News, February 10, 2025
The Executive Director of Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary (TCS) in Sierra Leone, Bala Amarasekeran has warned that if much is not done to reclaim and restore those degraded areas with emphasis on the area over the Tecugama Dam within two months he will leave Tacugama.
The TCS in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism, National Protected Area Authority, Environmental Protection Agency, Councilors, Headmen and other stakeholders from Regent and Barthurst Communities, the media and well-wishers over the weekend undertook a joint patrol to the areas declared by the Ministry of Lands and Country Planning to the Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Affairs to be used as Tourism Development Areas.
Before the patrol, representatives from each of the stakeholders made statements emphasising the time for action to ensure that the already degraded and encroached areas be reclaimed and restored.
Minister of Tourism and team promised to dialogue with the head of the military to ensure that more personnel is deployed in the area.
Also, the Executive Director for NPAA promised to give more energetic rangers to TCS and made a decree to his men that they should ensure that demolitions are done within the shortest possible time.
The headmen and councilors also agreed to work with the Ministry of Tourism and its partners to ensure that those degraded areas are reclaimed and restored as soon as possible.
After the statements, a joint patrol was done to the buffer zone and the areas over the Tecugama Dam (Boys Society).
The exercise was climaxed with the installation of signposts with strong warning messages for land grabbers and illegal encroachers.
In another development, under the UNDP/WAP PROJECT, stakeholders installed two billboards with conservation education, sensitization and awareness-raising messages at the entrance of Mile 13 Comfort Bridge and Songo roundabout.
